Proletarian poet Tsuru Akira lived a brief but full life. Born at the

Transcription

1 Essays 63 The Proletarian Senryu of Tsuru Akira Translations by Richard H. Minear Translator s Introduction Proletarian poet Tsuru Akira lived a brief but full life. Born at the Tsuru composed hundreds of senryû, short verses traditionally satiri revolutionary thrust. A recent account of his life and work bears the and occasioned among other events a biopic, Tsuru Akira: Traces of a Heart. Tsuru composed senryû from a very early age. His first verses date Matchi no bô no nenshô ni mo nita inochi A life like the flaring up of a match. The to emphasize the light the flame produces, he might have substituted and we shed our (limited) glow only for a moment.

2 64 Modern Haiku 44.1 The resignation that marked his earliest verses gave way to a deter felt his life had little permanent value, but one hundred years after his birth, his light still shines. Tamayoke o umeyo fuyaseyo kunshô o yarô We ll award medals for giving birth to more and more cannon fodder. March 1937 This senryû between Japan and China broke out with the incident at the Marco Polo Bridge. Tsuru s senryû are easy to remember. Easy to pass on by word feeling, share a laugh. Through laughter, build a conspiratorial connec Every reader of that day knew of the state mottoes and war slogans that were always visible on billboards and audible on the radio. Have many ô kôjin. Hansen senryûjin Tsuru Akira ôjin, ed. Tsuru Akira zenshû ôshirô. Inoue Kenkabô, Tsuru Akira: senryû kakushi no kishutachi (Tokyo: Riburu Pôto, Senryûjin kisai Tsuru Akira no shôgai â ô. Hansen senryû sakka Tsuru Akira â ô Tsuru Akira no senryû to sakebi ô Da kara Tsuru Akira: teikô-suru jûshichi moji ô Te to ashi o moida maruta ni shite kaeshi: gendai kanazukaiban Tsuru Akira zensenryû û Shôsetsu Tsuru Akira: akatsuki o idaite ô jirô, dir. Tsuru Akira: kokoro no kiseki

3 Essays 65 Umeyo fuyaseyo kuni no tame). This was a state motto, a war slogan that since the Meiji era epitomized When war started and no one knew when it would end, there weren t enough cannon fodder. There weren t enough slaves to use and discard. There weren t enough disposable horses who would attack on com chines. We ll award medals to families and women with many children, roic deaths, you ll get a commendation, so don t complain, don t gripe. Have many children. There isn t enough cannon fodder. Mother Wit: The Lifeblood of SenryÛ Together with the slogan have more children, for the sake of the coun tem and, pithy, excoriated it beautifully. Everyone realized vaguely, felt, loud voice, without saying it. With a forceful rhetorical flourish appeal ing to the masses, it recruited the masses, mobilized them, eviscerated the state motto, the war slogan, and sneered at it. wryly at the weakness, the impotence, the baseness of the masses that in the face of this slogan s powerful appeal, we couldn t criticize or re sist, of course, but couldn t do a thing, were powerless, could only be silent, perhaps smile wryly. Even if you had children and raised them, the boys would be made into cannon fodder, the girls into machines fairs or prepare or promise their children a better, brighter future than cannon fodder. This weakness and baseness float up from this verse: telling us There s course to change society, this lament for our weakness and impotence At the same time as it criticizes authority, it spears mercilessly the weak ness and inadequacies of us masses who bow to what authority says and û exists here, beyond a doubt.

4 66 Modern Haiku 44.1 SenryÛ Are Graffiti û are an art close to graffiti. The mother wit in this verse arises from taking a familiar slogan and rewriting it into something unfamiliar. hidden meaning. ing into a quagmire, the Ministry of Health took that phrase and formal ized it once more to preach to the people. When we consider that Tsuru Akira s verse appeared all of two years earlier than the ministry s appeal, we can understand just how deeply the slogan or state expression, Have crannies of society. Bit by bit, then soon on the streets, on the highways, on the radio, in newspaper ads, in newsreels, this slogan was broadcast all over, appeared all over. How to damage this slogan that blanketed city and verse gives the impression of a graffito, scribbled directly onto the posters and signs that filled the city, that then ran in its original form in maga zeitaku wa teki da zeitaku wa suteki da), it Modern Haiku, these senryû Da kara Tsuru Akira, front matter (unpaginated), v viii. Modern Haiku script that includes most of the senryû death.

5 Essays 67 eviscerating it. The second traces the course of a strike. HAI Lungs Shiki no soko hitoikigoto no hai no susu Deep in the mineshaft every breath brings soot to the lungs. Semento de kowabatta shiroi hai de chi mo hakenai no da Lungs white and cemented can t cough up even blood. Teppun ni kobiritsukarete sabiru hai Encrusted with iron dust: rusty lungs. shiki, here he phoneticizes it and underlines it. That makes it possible to think of its homonym, ) and sets a very grim tone for the entire sequence.

6 68 Modern Haiku 44.1 Mô watakuzu o suenai hai de kubi ni naru Lungs no longer able to inhale cotton dust mean the axe. Sanatoriumu nado shiranu nagaya no kekkakukin Tenement tuberculosis knows nothing like a sanatorium. Bôseki no yamai makichirashi ni kaeru tokoro ni furusato ga aru Where Home. Yagyô no baien o sue to iu asa asa no rajio taisô ka Forced to do radio calisthenics each morning, soot and smoke. Zenshû has Mô watakuzu mo : even

7 Essays 69 Ikizumaru enka no shita no kekkaku dê Under suffocating smoke: TB Day. February 15 SUTORAIKI Strike Mêdê no nai Nihon no sutoraiki a Japan that has no May Day: strike. Yôkyû o keri agohimo ga tanomi nari Rejecting workers demands, they rely on the fuzz. Zenshû has kemuri for enka (literally, under the (su-to-ra-i-ki) itself the final line of a senryû.

8 70 Modern Haiku 44.1 Haguruma de kamareta yubi de kaku shirei Fingers cogwheels chewed up write out strike orders. Hirugaeru toki o matteru kumiaiki Awaiting this day to flutter: union banners. Ikite iru na kaiko tsûchi no taba ga kuru all goners: bundles of pink slips arrive. Uragiri o shiro to byôki no tsuma no kao see my sick wife s face.

9 Essays 71 Shitsugyô no me ni sukappu no boshûfuda Reflected in the eyes of the jobless: handbills recruiting scabs. Sukappu ga fueta kôjô no susukemuri From factories with scabs black smoke. Kanzume ni suru bôryokudan o yatoiire To seal strikers and scabs in, they hire gangsters. Ima kara de mo osoku nai to iu uragiri no kankokusho not too late even now: handbills urge

10 72 Modern Haiku 44.1 Sôken ni darakan dake ga nokosareru Who s the corrupt union bosses. Danatsu ga iya nara tore to iu bumashi Then take this tiny raise. Kurashi ni wa taranu bumashi de uru sôgi They sell out for a wage hike that s not enough to live on. Uragiri no kainaku byôki no tsuma ga shini He sold out in vain: his sick wife dies.

11 Essays 73 Shakuhô o kaiko tsûchi ga matte ita Pink slips await those released from detention. Darakan ga sôgi o ureba agaru kabu Corrupt union bosses sell out, and stocks rise the company s and their own. June 1